Parking restrictions could be coming to North Railway Street in the Okotoks’ downtown area.

Tim Stobbs, Okotoks’ municipal enforcement team leader, raised the question of extending the existing two-hour parking zone in the downtown area east of Clark Avenue with town council last week.

He said the issue has come in response to concerns about vehicles being left on the road for long periods of time.

“I’ve had some concerns from the business people. I guess as the downtown core grows and we have to take into account all those people,” said Stobbs.

He said the problem is employees and other people who park in front of businesses for an entire day.

“We’re not talking about the person who’s been at the hair salon for three hours. We’re not talking about someone who has to take their dog to the vet for three and a half hours,” said Stobbs.

At present, parking on Elizabeth Street between Northridge Drive and Clark Avenue is restricted to two hours from Monday to Saturday between 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Stobbs said they don’t write any parking tickets in this area and prefer to raise awareness about parking rules, not issue fines.

“We just contact the people. Usually, it’s a new employee or it’s someone who was not aware of the restricted parking. Usually, after we talk to them we never have to speak to them again,” he said.

The idea to extend the parking restrictions is receiving a mixed reaction from business owners along North Railway Street.

Frank Kennedy, owner of The Wine Station, said he doesn’t have any problems with the idea of extending the parking restrictions.

He said he sees cars parked on the street all day, often in front of his store.

“Being a business owner, you don’t want to tie up parking for your customers,” said Kennedy.

Donna Pavka, owner of Celadonna, said she would support a move to extend the two-hour parking zone as long as it would only be during business hours.

“I say extend it. I’ve had people parking here all day and I don’t know where they are,” said Pavka. “Two hours, to me, is okay.”

However, Jen Emter, owner of Joshua Tree Salon, said the move isn’t needed.

She said a two-hour parking limit would be a problem for her business because her clients often spend longer periods in the salon.

“We have clients in for more than three hours,” said Emter.

Emter said there isn’t enough parking in the area and the move would only create more problems.

“Where are we going to park? We have two stalls but there are five of us here and there’s also our customers,” she said.

Jody Dudley, office manager of Back Bones, said the solution is to provide more parking in the area, not set up a two-hour time limit.

She said there isn’t enough parking in the area for their employees, their customers and residents living above the business.

“There’s not enough parking here to begin with,” said Dudley. “It would negatively effect our workers and the tenants.”

Donita Beaulieu, owner of Ginger Laurier, said two-hour parking is not a good idea because it will discourage day-trippers from coming to downtown Okotoks to spend a few hours in the area.

“That’s not enough time to eat lunch and go shopping,” she said.

However, Beaulieu also said employees at businesses in the area should park further away to free up more parkin

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